The mother of one of the members of our ward has asked that the legal name of her son be changed in the church records. I will need to find out why she wants the name changed, although she says he legally changed it. He is an adult. What documentation do I need from him/her to prove the legal name change? Court record?

She is also asking me to provide his member record. Is there a prohibition against providing member record to someone other than the adult the record belongs to?

thaiboyzdad wrote:What documentation do I need from him/her to prove the legal name change? Court record?

The bishop may review any official document to verify the accuracy of the new legal name. The name on the membership record should match the legal name of the member, so you really do not need to know why she is asking.

thaiboyzdad wrote:She is also asking me to provide his member record. Is there a prohibition against providing member record to someone other than the adult the record belongs to?

Prohibited. Membership records should not be shown or given to members under any circumstance. Membership records are only given to the bishop or a clerk.

Members are encouraged to have copies of the Individual Ordinance Summary for themselves and for any dependent children living at home. It does not sound as if this son is a dependent child living at home. You could give the IOS directly to him, however.

thaiboyzdad wrote:The mother of one of the members of our ward has asked that the legal name of her son be changed in the church records. ... He is an adult.

Unfortunately the mother cannot have the record of her adult child changed. Only the member can change their membership record. There is an exception for an adult who is legally incompetent to have their guardian with power of attorney to make changes.

jdlessley wrote:Unfortunately the mother cannot have the record of her adult child changed. Only the member can change their membership record.

I don't agree with that. The records are to reflect the member's legal name. It's not the member's choice as to what is on there. If their legal name has been changed, then the member's record should be changed to match. As long as the Bishop is satisfied with the evidence presented, I don't see a problem with who initiated the change. (Assuming that the member is either less-active or not in the ward.) It's no different then when we add a marriage to an inactive "single" person's record triggered by reports from the ward leaders.

What hasn't been explained is where is the son's record? If it's in the ward, then the change is straightforward. If it's somewhere else, then I think this is going to take something like a MLS special request to get the information to CHQ.

Have you searched the Wiki?
Try using a Google search by adding "site:tech.lds.org/wiki" to the search criteria.

jdlessley wrote:Unfortunately the mother cannot have the record of her adult child changed. Only the member can change their membership record.

I don't agree with that. The records are to reflect the member's legal name. It's not the member's choice as to what is on there.

As far as I can tell we are not talking about what the member wants. We are talking about who can have a record changed. From my personal experience my mother could not make any changes to my record even though she had the legal documents showing my correct legal name (a minor spelling error). I had to make the change myself. This was before the 2010 change to the handbooks so I don't know if there was or has been a policy change since then. I don't have access to Handbook 1 to see what it says.

I don't see it as "she's having it changed" as much as she's bringing a discrepancy with backing documentation to the attention of the ward leaders. The Bishop and clerk is having it changed to reflect the legal policy.

I checked the MLS manual. I can't find any restrictions on what/who can be used as a source of information. Only that the records are to be accurate. I believe that's always been the case.

jdlessley wrote:From my personal experience my mother could not make any changes to my record even though she had the legal documents showing my correct legal name (a minor spelling error). I had to make the change myself.

Since you were likely an active member at the time, it does seem like a wise idea to check with you just to make sure the documents are correct and there wasn't some other change that made the documents inaccurate. But I wouldn't take it as indicator of policy.

thaiboyzdad wrote:I should have been more clear. she wants her son's member record number. any concerns with that?

The membership record number should be treated confidentially and follow all the same rules as an Individual Ordinance Summary (which is that it is given only to the member, or for minors to the parents/guardians). The MRN is a key to getting an LDS Account. With an MRN and a birthdate (which a mother clearly would have), a person can take over someone's LDS Account.

So we need to be very cautious with such important security keys and only give them to authorized people.